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Saturday, 27 October 2012

Craft Barn Calendar Challenge # 4 - Doodles

The theme for the Craft Barn Callendar Challenge #4 is 'Doodles' and this filled me with horror!! I doodle when I'm on the phone etc. but not really at any other time. I only have some border dylusion stamps and I felt they wouldn't do so I decided to see what I could create by just playing around.

I sprayed some dylusion ink onto card in various colours and dried it. Some random stamping was added using distress ink. Next some large drops of water were allowed to drop on the ink and were then dried. From this point on, I used a white gel pen and my trusty sewing machine to doodle away and create my calendar page. Do I like it? At first, no. Now I've played with it, photographed it and just lived with it, I think it's grown on me so I decided not to redo it, which was the original plan!

Here's my calendar page - get your sunglasses on people before you view:

The colours are bright and bold and I'm pleased that some areas show a little more yellow than others.

I started by drawing a flower around each water drop mark. They are roughly the same shape but are in a variety of sizes.

Next I bleached out some of the colour from each flower using a waterbrush. A second run with the white gel pen was then needed to make it stand out.

Most of the flowers were then given a 'stem' using an embroidery stitch on my machine. I thought about using various colours of thread but stuck to white in the end to link in with the gel pen.The little flowers in the centres were punched from some of the background card which had been randomly stamped in white ink. Their edges were inked and the flowers were given some shape and then attached in the centre of each drawn flower.

My dear husband had sent for a little bag of watch parts for me so I used some of those as the flower centres. They are very tiny but really quite amazing, I can't believe how anyone can put a watch together with such small pieces! The calendar was inked with distress and some Tim tissue tape was applied to the top to hide the stitch holes. It was then machined into position. The edge of the calendar was also machined to define the edge a little more. Have to say it's great to use my machine in my craft work as well as in the more traditional way for sewing fabrics.

I hope you like my page. I know it won't be to everyone's taste but I'm pleased with the outcome,

particularly when I didn't like the theme at all!! Thanks for your support and for visiting me today.

How can you not like this!! it gorgeous - the bold colours and the wow stitching and those flowers are just fab ,getting the feeling that I like it? you can see the effort that has gone into this to make it just that little bit special x

Wow - Julia, I love your doodling! So clever to start with water drops that were there in your inky background and then bleach it out further within each flower. It looks just great, and I'm in awe of your stitched stems! Gorgeous sunshine colours too... Have a lovely Sunday!Alison x

Oh wow !!!! For me, your card is perfect Julia, ans so rich of meticulous details I really love !! Your flowers are wonderful, stitching them like that is a great idea ! and your background also is beautiful... Love it ! Coco xx

Now usually orange and yellow are my least fav colours, but adding the white in a sort of faux batique (not sure about the spelling!!) style makes this work so well. Gosh I hope April is as bright and cheery as this when we get there:) Hugs, Buttons x

Hi Julia, just catching up - life seems to be getting in the way of things lately!Love this calendar page - the stitched stems look fabulous, and the watch parts for the flower centers is a brilliant idea.Avril xx

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About Me

We all say it but I truly have been 'making' things ever since I can remember!
I taught Textiles in various Secondary Schools for nearly 27 years and loved it. I'm now retired and lucky enough to have lots of time to indulge in my passion for crafting, particularly mixed media style projects. I now live in the beautiful county of Suffolk which is a world away from my previous home in South London!